What is Artificial Intelligence?

Abstract

One of the fascinating aspects of the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is that the precise nature of its subject matter turns out to be surprisingly difficult to define. The problem, of course, has two parts, since securing an adequate grasp of the nature of the artificial would do only as long as we were already in possession of a suitable understanding of the idea of intelligence. What is supposed to be “artificial” about artificial intelligence, no doubt, has to do with its origins and mode of creation in arising as a product of human contrivance and ingenuity rather than as a result of natural (especially biological or evolutionary) influence. Things that are artificially intelligent, in other words, differ from those that are naturally intelligent as artifacts that possess special properties ordinarily possessed by non-artifacts. So these are things that have a certain property (intelligence) as a result of a certain process (because they were created, designed, or manufactured in this way).